That means fans of the Latino hip-hop star, record producer and songwriter — who came to fame with Selena y Los Dinos and who today fronts the Kumbia Kings All Starz — should brace for his latest reinvention.

But it's familiar territory. His upcoming album is a return to Selena-inspired simplicity.

“I went back to the drawing board,” said Quintanilla, 48. “One tends to sometimes, I guess, go out of the box too far. I tended to do that with my last two albums.”

He's talking about the avant-garde, house-oriented “Planeta Kumbia” and the star-studded, heavily-looped “La Vida de Un Genio” (“The Life of a Genius”). OK, maybe he's guilty as charged.

“In Bolivia, we spawned five No. 1 hits on the last album. Here in the U.S., the sound was a little too different.

“Basically, I went back to my roots and went back to the drawing board, going back to the essence of what I put on Selena's last album. I kinda went back to those days, you know, a retro sound.”

For the first time, the upcoming album will be released solely under his name.

Onstage, it's a different story.

A.B. Quintanilla & the Kumbia Kings All Starz deliver a free daytime concert Saturday during Festival People en Español at the Convention Center.

He's also taking part (along with his father) in a Selena panel discussion, which includes a question-and-answer session, that same afternoon.

Festival People en Español events at the Convention Center are free and run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free daytime parking is available at the Alamodome.

Selena's older brother wrote some of her biggest hits. Nearly 20 years later, how does Quintanilla get into a Selena groove?

“What I have to do is think more simplistic,” he said. “When we talk about Selena's music, a song like ‘Como la Flor' or ‘La Carcacha' or ‘Baila Esta Cumbia,' they're just real simple, catchy little (songs) ... and I strayed away from that.”

Saturday's appearance is a chance to reconnect with his beloved sister's earliest triumphs.

“San Antonio has always been good to Selena y Los Dinos,” he said, calling the down-home early gigs “comfy.”

“I have so many fond memories. We used to play right there outside of Mi Tierra, where they shut down the street during Fiesta week. My dad would park ‘Big Brown Bertha' and block the road. We'd perform on that stage and look out there and go, ‘Wow! We're the bomb, man! Look how many people.'

“We thought that was the world.”

He'll share more insights about Selena on Saturday. Some are especially sweet.

“For me, my happy days were sitting behind Selena, writing the songs for her because she was the bomb and continues to be the bomb,” Quintanilla said. “I'll watch videos of us and I'll go, ‘Wow! I can't believe that was us.'”

Quintanilla says he never tires of talking about his sister's legacy. Fans can't get enough, either. Selena was only 23 when she was shot to death by a former fan club employee on March 31, 1995. She'd be 41.

“It's kind of bittersweet for me,” he said. “I'm happy that the people love her so much, but I'm sad because she's not here. Her being gone, for the family, leaves a big empty gap that can never be filled. We're tighter than ever, but in the back of our minds, in the back of our hearts, there's a big empty hole.”

Selena's legend and mystique are fueled by unanswerable questions and speculation about what might have been.

“Nothing would have stopped her,” Quintanilla said. “What makes me sad is when little kids come up to me and they'll ask me where she's at. They're 3 or 4 and they've seen the movie (‘Selena') and they don't quite understand the concept of death. That breaks my heart.”